Arcade Fire – ‘Reflektor’

First off there are two videos, the standard one which can be viewed below – directed by band branding machine Anton Corbijn. The alternative is an interactive Google Chrome experiment that can be toyed with here. Viewers utilise their mouse, phone, or tablet to mess about with the video’s graphics. As if this wasn’t enough, the option to incorporate your face into the film is also available.

There is something inherently ominous about Arcade Fire’s impending assault on indie d-i-s-c-o. It’s not a quick one, there is no rush that’s for sure. James Murphy production has it’s largely practical benefits, and is well suited here, but there is also this underlying statement of long-term intent. An LCD Fire of sorts, or an Arcade Soundsystem if you will. Can this actually work? It sounds so.

The tell-tale signs began to flicker on the soaring ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)‘, and ‘Reflektor’ now demonstrates a cemented direction many will welcome. But the similarities don’t stop there, oh no. Dig a little deeper and beneath the cracked surface sits an interactive video for Sprawl from 2011, complete with matching oversized papier-mâché heads!

The promotional campaign thus far has been staggering. What began with a simple message from an unsuspecting fan on Twitter who felt like tweeting “You’re my favourite”. Arcade Fire then chose to reply with “Thanks. Our new album will be out October 29th”, and the snow-flake snowballed into a viral avalanche culminating on a building in Manhattan which featured the time stamp “Arcade Fire 9 PM 9/9”. An explicit exercise in the power of social media.